Leave the Grave Green

When a body is discovered floating in a Thames river lock one dreary morning, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James are summoned from Scotland Yard to Chiltern Hills. The dead man is Connor Swann, son-in-law of two of London's most renowned opera personalities. And prints on the corpse's neck suggest that Swann was strangled.

Confused by other reviewers' remarks and curious as to why some could not get into the characters of this novel. Thoroughly enjoyed this one, got more into the characters in this one than in book #2, which I also enjoyed. Looking forward to starting book #4 next week.

Will be interesting when I get to the audios that change narrators to the Gemma James character as the primary. Normally pass up women narrators (not because they are not good - some are the best) because I don't hear a high voice as well as a low one and tend to miss words.

I'd recommend this series of non-violent murder mysteries to all that like that genre. And, thanks to Audible for adding the "Series" feature, makes it easy to go through them.

How the Light Gets In: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, Book 9

Shadows are falling on the usually festive Christmas season for Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. When Gamache receives a message from Myrna Landers that a longtime friend has failed to arrive for Christmas in the village of Three Pines, he welcomes the chance to get away from the city. Gamache soon discovers the missing woman was once one of the most famous people not just in North America, but in the world, and now goes unrecognized by virtually everyone. As events come to a head, Gamache is drawn ever deeper into the world of Three Pines.

Rage of the Fallen: The Last Apprentice, #8

Thomas Ward has served as the Spook's apprentice for three years. He has battled boggarts, witches, demons, and even the devil himself. Tom has enemies: The Fiend stalks him, waiting for a moment of weakness. The terrifying Morrigan, goddess of witches, warned him never to step foot on her homeland, Ireland.

What made the experience of listening to The Last Apprentice: Rage of the Fallen the most enjoyable?

Good story and good narration.

Any additional comments?

Enjoyed this series quite awhile ago, up through the last one written. Checked back for a period of time and then forgot about them. By accident, ran across the series again in Oct. '12 and realized there were new ones to enjoy. The new ones are better than ever! Great book to take your mind off everything else. Narrator is superb and I am glad he is back to read the rest of the series.

And Justice There Is None: A Duncan Kincaid / Jemma James Novel

Gemma James is adjusting to professional and personal changes - and a future now intricately entwined with Duncan Kincaid. But her new responsibilities are put to the test when she is placed in charge of a particularly brutal homicide: The lovely young wife of a wealthy antiques dealer has been found murdered on fashionable Notting Hill. This case sets off warning bells for Duncan: It's far too similar to an unsolved murder in which an antiques dealer was killed in precisely the same way.

Love the way Deborah Crombie braids the past and present together throughout the book. It took great skill to write a novelette within a novel that takes you through some fifty years of storyline so well. All believable and interesting. Many surprises in this one and a bitter sweet ending.

The Confession: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery

Declaring he needs to clear his conscience, a dying man walks into Scotland Yard and confesses that he killed his cousin five years earlier during the Great War. When Inspector Ian Rutledge presses for details, the man evades his questions, revealing only that he hails from a village east of London. With little information and no body to open an official inquiry, Rutledge begins to look into the case on his own. Less than two weeks later, the alleged killer’s body is found floating in the Thames, a bullet in the back of his head.

Charles Todd just gets better with age - like a fine wine he is. Begin in Audible with the first of the series (confession: I've only listed to the those narrated by Simon Prebble - he is "The Man" as far as I am concerned) and work your way through to the end; they only get better and better.

Hamish MacLeod was quiet in this novel and I admire Todd for that. The best hope in life is that, no matter what the ailment, a person gets better, survives, and that is where I felt Todd was taking Rutledge in this one. It made me want to read the next one, a new facet to Todd, a hope for his character.

To sum this up, the best Ian Rutledge story yet. I loved every page of it. Now, saying that - this was the first novel I figured out "who-done-it" (about 2/3 in) but it did not ruin the novel because I was never 100% sure I was right, Todd kept me guessing and ultimately that is what I want in every mystery.

A Trick of the Light: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel

“Hearts are broken,” Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. “Sweet relationships are dead.” But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara's solo show at the famed Musée in Montreal.

Oh no, no, no, Louise Penny. Before all you Louise Penny fans kill me, let me say I have loved this series since it first came out and preordered a hardbound copy back in May. Bought the audio book the day it was made available. Louise is exceptional in her ability to bring the reader into the scene. You can taste the food, see the location, and smell the environment. She still has that ability in this novel and I was transported to Three Pines once again. BUT where is she going with her characters? I am so unhappy with the direction she is taking the main characters that I'm not sure I have a desire to buy or listen to her next book. Felt like we were ending up a soap opera . . . will little Billy kick his drug habit or sabotage his mentor in the process, will Jane take Dick back, did Spot come home - is that spot there? I think she was trying to create a cliff-hanging ending that would draw us back; but, to me, all she did was trivialize her characters.

Women, Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything

No matter how sophisticated or wealthy or broke or enlightened you are, how you eat tells all. Geneen Roth's masterwork, Women, Food and God explores the relationship between how we eat and how we see ourselves in the world.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting

Using a travel guide format, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee acts as tour guide extraordinaire, describing and critiquing every aspect of this territory she knows so well: its people (young and old, male and female), familiar phrases ("purl this, darn that"), strange beliefs, currency (skein trading), etiquette, holidays (any sale day at the local yarn shop), and customs. She notes important dates in knitting history and celebrates unsung knitting heroes.

Storm Front: The Dresden Files, Book 1

A call from a distraught wife, and another from Lt Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigation Unit makes Harry believe things are looking up, but they are about to get worse, much worse. Someone is harnessing immense supernatural forces to commit a series of grisly murders. Someone has violated the first law of magic: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Tracking that someone takes Harry into the dangerous underbelly of Chicago, from mobsters.

Writing this in hopes you will not make the same mistake I did by ignoring the other reviewers comments about the narrator, whom I am sure is a very lovely man. However, his breathing and mouth noises ruined the book for me. I could not finish it because of his personal "sounds" which really ramp up after the Audible clip. And it is too bad because the story was good enough to make me try a couple more times to listen to it. Just could not do it. If the book was re-recorded, I'll bet it would be 4-plus stars.

The Graveyard Book

Why we think it’s a great listen: Gaiman’s not just an award-winning author, but a narrator who earns rave reviews – and fields requests from other authors to perform their books, too! Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead....

What a different book. I grit my teeth at the beginning because it begins vague (on purpose) and weird compared to my usual selection in audio books. But I was hooked not too far in and really enjoyed it all the way through. A couple "dull" moments which I fast forwarded through but a delightful tale. With Neil Gaiman reading his own book, you realize you are hearing it as he intended. Which is sometimes a question in audio books. So, grit you teeth, hang in there, and enjoy.

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